Your Right to Know

JERUSALEM — After a landmark U.N. vote upgrading the status of the Palestinian territories to a “
nonmember observer state” in the international body, Israel said yesterday that it will build an
additional 3,000 units of Jewish housing in the West Bank.

The government also is moving forward with preliminary planning for a controversial development
on the outskirts of Jerusalem that U.S. officials have opposed for decades, said a government
official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly about the
issue.

The hillside development, known as E-1, would connect the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim
with East Jerusalem, cutting off access between the Palestinian cities of Ramallah and Bethlehem.
U.S. officials have long urged Israel to freeze the project because they fear it would make it more
difficult to create a contiguous Palestinian state.

The decision on E-1 does not authorize construction but would clear the way for “preliminary
statutory planning,” the official said.

The decision to expand settlement construction surprised even some inside the Israeli government
because the Foreign Ministry, after initially threatening to retaliate against Palestinians for the
U.N. bid, reversed itself early this week and vowed a measured response.

Some speculated that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was particularly angry over the
harsh words and tone of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ U.N. speech on Thursday
night, during which he accused Israel of committing ethnic cleansing against Palestinians.

Despite U.S. and Israeli objections, Palestinians won the U.N. General Assembly vote to upgrade
their status from “entity” to “state.” Although largely symbolic, the change could allow
Palestinians to file a complaint against Israel in the International Criminal Court over West Bank
settlement construction.

Most of the international community deems settlement construction as illegal because it occurs
on land that Israel seized during the 1967 Middle East War.

The Israeli statement on new housing units appeared to have been hastily arranged on Thursday
night and was not formally issued by a government agency. Details about when or where construction
would take place were unclear, suggesting to some that the announcement was more intended to send a
message to Palestinians.